Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

66 reviews

emmdashed's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I should have looked at the Content Warnings for this one lol 😬

It's probably not the Grossest Book Ever but it's up there and it features Very Graphic Animal and Child Cruelty/Death. And there are some other really gnarly moments of just nasty stuff. And some cringey sexting. 

Ultimately I am still not sure how I completely feel about this book. It was both extremely easy to read and extremely difficult to read. You want to know what happens and it's so short you can just inhale it but at the same time the images it paints are disturbing and I found myself just really bummed and grossed out. I think it crosses the line at points into being 2 Edgy 4 U so like.... that's certainly a choice. I found myself wondering what is the point what are we saying why this story. But also I read the whole thing so ??? 

I think it could either have been longer so we could get more into the characters and why they behaved the way they did. Or it could have been shorter and excised some of the unnecessary anecdotes (like honestly the Little Christ and the Priest and the Cat moments added literally nothing apart from being ~edgy and disturbing ooooo~). The length that it was was just awkward. 

Some more spoiler heavy thoughts below: 

I honestly could somewhat buy Agnes' immediate devotion to Zoe. It was 0-100 real fast, but it seemed like she was the victim of a lot of emotional abuse in the past, even more than she described. Unfortunately that kind of trauma sometimes leads victims to unintentionally attach themselves to more abusers. (This is not trying to victim blame, abuse is a fucked up cycle that can ruin lives). It almost felt like a Cult Initiation story with this vulnerable woman being caught by this leader and the mentality/lifestyle Zoe offered her?? Not sure where I'm going with it but ??? 

 I was more bothered by the speed at which the Tapeworm grew like... it takes weeks not days. Especially for them to get that big. But maybe I'm just pedantic. 

Also.... I feel bad for Agnes' roommate while all this nonsense is going on like. Your roommate is keeping rotting meat and eating it like that would stink up the house at the very least. Besides all the other weird behavior lol.

TLDR: idk this was a weird one and I can't say if it's good or bad. Bummed me out but I've been thinking about it for days. Blades of Glory says it best. 
"Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative. It's gets the people going." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Death, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, War, Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Chronic illness, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Miscarriage

Minor: Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Not sure about the severity ratings but I tried to put as many of these as I can. I cannot stress enough that this book gets r o u g h. The animal and child death stood out particularly to me but other bits might bother other people.

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Regretfully, this collection simply wasn’t my cup of tea. The work was emotionally impactful and intriguing enough that I simply couldn’t put it down, but it surpassed my tolerance threshold with respect to certain themes and imagery.

That being said, I am glad I read this. LaRocca exhibits technically-skilled writing, compelling style, and a cohesive voice, a combination that makes for a powerful, even formidable storyteller. I would recommend his work to fans of dark, reflective fiction and horror that seeks to reflect and linger rather that titillate and dissipate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Body horror, Homophobia, Blood, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Vomit, Murder, and Miscarriage

literally_mint's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Violence, Body horror, Infertility, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

avclrey's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Weird, shocking, gross. At no point did I know where it was going to know and my jaw literally dropped in disgust multiple times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

lizardgod's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

• It's fine I guess? Not worth the hype I saw for it. Read it if you're interested in it but prepare to be disappointed and uncomfortable seeing the characters fit the 'women are seen as violent and sexual playthings' quota.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Violence, and Torture

booksofautumn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Self harm, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Suicide

morgansb's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

This was unpleasant. I don't disagree with the premise of a bizarre D/S relationship, but the pace at which the relationship progressed was confusing. I also didn't think that it ended well, or resolved itself. This book was quite short, and for that it suffers from being annoyingly incomplete. I'm confused as to why the correspondence is part of a police report, because this also does not get touched upon. Overall, the big shocker was more gross than anything, but weirdly enough there was an online gross out blog called "blowfly"(huge trigger warnings for body horror, trauma,sex, blood , etc) which honestly reminded me a lot of this, so I wasn't the most original idea. I would be surprised if the author didn't gather inspiration from that to be honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Gore, Body horror, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Murder and Mental illness

Minor: Blood, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Grief, Excrement, and Death

mhigbee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Slavery, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Violence

devilledgreggs's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I’m speechless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Self harm and Homophobia

citlalialvrod's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Bizarro y decepcionante.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Self harm

Minor: Miscarriage